Ecosystem Monitoring Camera Program

Ecosystem Monitoring Camera Program

The Ecosystem Monitoring Camera Program’s goals are two-fold. The first goal will be to monitor multi-species responses to caribou management actions over time using a remote camera program. The program specifically monitors changes in relative density/abundance of multiple species including ungulates (moose, deer, woodland caribou) and predators (wolves and bears) over time in caribou ranges with habitat restoration and predator reductions (Cold Lake), predator reduction only (East Side Athabasca River; ESAR), no restoration or predator reduction (West Side Athabasca River; WSAR) and relatively little human habitat-alteration (Saskatchewan boreal plains). Monitoring the efficacy of predator reduction in tandem with restoration activities is imperative to support the directives identified in the federal recovery strategy and draft provincial range plan. The second goal of the program is to simultaneously clarify the relative influence of human habitat alteration and climate on predator and prey densities. Cameras are placed such that a latitudinal gradient will be similarly sampled across each range, resulting in a comparison of low human habitat alteration (Saskatchewan boreal plains) and high habitat alteration (WSAR, ESAR and CL) controlling for latitude as a proxy for climate.